Bearing the Name in Babylon

by Doug Floyd

When Jerusalem falls, the faithful fall alongside her. Their homes are burned, their
treasures are lost, their families are taken into captivity. Those who heeded the words of
the prophets stumble alongside those who ignored the words of the prophets. They bear
the judgment together.

They bear the Name of the Lord on the banks in Babylon. They carry the weight of His
Glory even as while stumbling into the wilderness. The Name of the Lord is not a magic
talisman to ward off suffering and pain. It is the gift of Covenant with the Most High even
in the midst of the desert waste places. Over 1,000 years earlier, as the Children of
Israel crossed the wilderness into the Land of Future Promise, the sons of Aaron were
instructed to put the Name of the Lord upon the people.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus
you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
(Numbers 6:22-27 ESV)

A dark day comes when the faithful few must leave the Land of Future Promise behind.
They walk by way of the wilderness into captivity. Jesus also walks by way of the
wilderness into captivity. The Spirit leads Him into the wasteland to be tempted. The
Spirit leads Him into the captivity of the tomb.

When Jesus invites His disciples to "follow Me," He invites them and us to follow Him to
the cross. He calls us to follow even when the sky darkens, the land trembles and the
future promise fades.

He calls us to follow where we do not want to go. I think back the faithful few walking
into the jaws of Babylon. They carry the weight of God's three-fold blessing:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Bearing the Holy Name

The Hebrew word for bless carries the idea of the kneeling. The blessing is much like
the giving of a name. The people kneel and receive a blessing, a naming. The good
parent names their child with the hopes of seeing the child grow into that name. The
name is a word of praise, a word of goodness, a call.

In one sense, our names call us forward into the future. My parents called me, Douglas.
When I hear the name called, I respond. The name calls me. And in the end of my life,
the name will be filled with the content of my life.

At the same time, my father also recognized me as his son, and gave me his family
name Floyd. Thus I am part of a family that reaches across time. Douglas Floyd bears
both the particularity of my own life and the connection to a greater whole, a people who
preceded me and will live after me.

In much the same way, the Children of Israel bear a particular name as well as the
Name of the Lord.

In Egypt, the ancient Hebrews are slaves. Nameless ones. Fatherless children. The
Lord names them, "Children of Israel." His naming is a blessing. His blessing is a
calling. His calling is so effectual that no power can resist, not even the god Pharaoh
can stand in the way. In fact, those who try to stop the call or prevent the call (including
Pharaoh) are destroyed in the process.

This is the power of the Name. The Lord "calls out" His people, Israel. Over the
centuries, they will fill out this Name and give it content.

At the same, the Lord gives this people His Covenant Name. They are part of a greater
whole, the "called out" family of faith across time and space called to bear His Name.
They have no image of the Lord. Only the Name. They bear the Name as His children.

When Jesus comes, He bears the Name completely. He fulfills the name of Israel and
the Name of the LORD in His life, death and resurrection. This royal name of Israel can
finally be understood in light of Jesus.

Jesus also calls out a nameless people. These people are not slaves in Egypt, but they
are slaves to evil and corruption. He calls them out from every tribe and nation. They are
the "ekklesia," the called out ones. He names them as his own, as his friends, as his
chosen ones:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go
and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my
name, he may give it to you.
(John 15:16 ESV)
His disciples then and now are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. They are
named as His own and He will keep them--even through the baptism of fire. Those who
bear the Name of the Lord bear it into the midst of a world that is out of order, bear into
the heart of struggle and suffering, bear in the face of the enemies of God. But the ever
faithful Lord promises to keep them. He will guard them, seal them, protect them and
lead them into glory.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and
now and forever. Amen.
(Jude 1:24-25 ESV)

Beholding the Shining Face

The Lord also promises to "make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you."
Even as the faithful fall into Babylon, the promise of His Shining Face remains. Ezekiel
beholds this Shining Glory on the banks of the Chebar canal. Standing alongside the
captives, in the midst of the dark land, Ezekiel beholds the glory of the Lord.

This is the glory of the holy mountain coming down into the valley of the shadow of
death. Moses is called up the mountain to behold the glory. It is from this place of
beholding the Lord that Moses speaks the Law and proclaims the Word of the Lord to
the Children of Israel.

In obedience to the Lord, Israel builds a Tabernacle and later a Temple where the glory
of the Lord will dwell among His people. This glory is His favor, His intimacy, His
presence. The Tabernacle and later the Temple serve as Mountains of the Lord. In fact,
the Temple is built on Mt Zion. For the mountain is the place where man ascends
between heaven and earth to behold the glory of the Lord.

This is the Aaronic blessing that the LORD "make his face to shine upon you and be
gracious to you." Long after the Temple burns and the mountain is far, far away, Ezekiel
beholds the Shining Face. The blessing of the Name,the burden of the Name is the
promise of God's faithful presence even in the place of judgment. His people may enter
into judgment of captivity, but He will join them in the land of the alien gods.

His Ever-Shining Face glorifies His people even as they suffer in the land of darkness.
Paul knows the glory of the Shining Face in persecution, in suffering, in prison and even
in despair. In 2 Corinthians, he expounds the depths of his suffering and wasting away
while at the same exalting in the glory of the Shining Face that grows ever brighter even
as Paul is growing ever weaker.
The desert, the prison, the dark places cannot extinguish the promise of His Shining
Face, his gracious love that covers us, sustains us, renews us, and glorifies us. Though
we face death all the day long nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Becoming the Blessed Peace

In this blessed assurance we rest in the midst of wild animals encircling the wasteland,
then we hear yet another blessing, "the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give
you peace." Even as God's people stand face to face with the enemies of God, they are
enveloped in the favor and peace of God.

Daniel faces the cold, cruelty of Babylonian rule as he falls into a den of Lions. But he
can Sabbath while surrounded by vicious animals. They are at peace for the Shalom of
God is in their midst.

Daniel reminds of us of yet one more mystery concerning those who bear the Name.
The Name Bearers, the Children of God, the Favored Ones, bear the Name on behalf of
the enemies of God. Just as Jesus fully bears the Name before the enemies of God,
thus removing the enmity between God and man, Daniel bears the Name before those
who oppose the Holy One and removes the enmity between them and God.
Nebuchadnezzar repents. Darius calls out to Daniel and then to the Lord Most High.

When the faithful fall into Babylon, the Glory of the Lord does not depart from them.
Instead, they bear the Glory as Shining Lights in the midst of a dark land. When God's
people are dispersed and driven into the desert places, they build a city of refuge. The
Lord sends them out to bear His Name in dark places, and they become peacemakers,
joymakers, lovemakers.

Think of the woman Jesus meets at the well. He speaks the word of life, convicting her
while restoring her. She immediately runs to her village "bearing" good news. She
becomes a joymaker, a peacemaker, a true lovemaker, revealing the Good, Good News
of Jesus Christ.

Like this blessed woman, like the faithful shining out in Babylon, we realize that we
shine out in place where we are standing. In Christ, we bear the weight of the Holy
Name, we behold the Shining Face, we become the Blessed Peace. Living in and
through His blessing, we become His blessing in the midst of wasted and warring
places.

Addendum
It is hard for us to grasp how God can allow His faithful children to suffer judgment
alongside the wicked, and yet we know Daniel and his three friends are delivered into
captivity. We also know Ezekiel goes into captivity and that Jeremiah suffers all sorts of
judgment. The Aaronic blessing is but one place we hear of the Lord's faithfulness to His
people even when He sends them into captivity alongside the wicked. Their wilderness
journey is but an image of another journey Jesus will make to Golgotha as His suffers
alongside two thieves.